A BUSINESSMAN struggling with chronic pain and money worries took his own life after bailiffs confronted him at his Penrith home over a debt.

Ian Robb, 63, a much loved husband to his wife of 25 years, died in woodland near Shap on January 18 several hours after he went missing from his Little Strickland home, taking his shotgun. Despite the efforts of specialists police negotiators, he took his own life.

A three-hour inquest in Cockermouth heard a detailed account of the events surrounding the tragedy.

Mrs Robb told how her Sunderland born husband had gained accountancy and business qualifications at the town’s polytechnic and then worked in the family auto business with his father and brother.

He had also volunteered for the Sunderland Coastguard until he was 40, being honoured with a long-service award.

But in 1993, Mr Robb’s father died from cancer, and it was a tragic end to his life. In 2009, Mr Robb left the family business and the couple relocated to Little Strickland, near Penrith.

He started a new business - Caldew Autolec Limited, in Carlisle. Initially, it did well but then business slowed down.

Then, in March, 2018, there was a fall-out with the owner of the Rosehill Industrial Estate premises he rented and he had to hire somebody to store the business’s equipment. There was a disagreement over that fee and machinery was withheld, the court heard.

The inquest heard also how in April 2016 Mr Robb began to suffer pain in his lower body, and right shoulder. Despite a benign lesion being operated on, he continued to suffer pain. He was convinced he had cancer.

In the year before his death, his health and wellbeing significantly declined: he looked unwell, and lost weight. Yet he never shared worries about his business, said Mrs Robb. “If we ever talked about such matters, he said everything was fine,” she said.

As his pain worsened, he could not find pleasure in anything any more. A few days before his death, Mr Robb saw his consultant, who said the painful shoulder was not yet bad enough to require immediate surgery.

He asked her: “Do you think they would do something if they thought I was suicidal?”

Mr Robb did not want to speak to his friends about his problems; Mrs Robb researched finding a counsellor but he did not want to speak to one.

The hearing then heard how On Thursday, January 17, Mrs Robb returned home after walking the dogs to find two bailiffs had parked their car outside their house. It was just after 6.10am.

They were there to take possession of a Land Rover which belonged to Mr Robb in lieu of an unpaid £3,000 debt. They left after Mrs Robb added £1,400 to a sum he was able to transfer to them.

Mrs Robb then left for work.

It was only when she returned from work that she discovered her husband was missing, finding he had left a note explaining his intention. She immediately alerted the police. Early the next morning, officers found him in the Shap woodland and despite efforts to communicate with him, he was mostly unresponsive. Told he had been found alive, Mrs Robb felt relieved, convinced he would be coming home.

Tragically, just before 11am, Mr Robb shot himself.

Coroner Kally Cheema said his state of mind was affected by two things: firstly, the chronic pain he suffered, affecting his quality of life; and secondly, financial pressures from business debts rather than ones relating to those from his family business in 2009.

She said that the January 17 from the bailiffs - while lawful and proper in its purpose - was “extremely significant” and prompted, she believed, his decision to end his life.

The coroner said: “I am satisfied, on the balance of probability, that the appropriate short-form conclusion, based on all the evidence, is that of suicide.” Ms Cheema noted Mrs Robb had found herself on January 17 in a situation which could only be described as a nightmare.